Is this normal for this yeast to move so fast? I mean I guess it kind of is for wine or champagne yeast. I just did a wine kit with premier cuvée and in 7 days at 68f it was down to 1.008.
anyway, i was thinking of racking and cooling to slow it down and try to manage FG into desired range of 1.008-.010.
but that got me thinking…not letting it finish, does that leave you open to any off flavors that the yeast might normally clean up? tastes pretyy dam good right now-just a bit sweeter than i want.
Not that I ever noticed. I probably did it that way 4 or 5 times before I started letting it ferment dry, and the cider was good each time. For me and my hectic schedule it’s just a lot easier to pitch, let it go to .998 or wherever it wants to finish at, rack to secondary and leave it there until I’m ready to keg. Then back sweeten and acidify, and serve.
ok thanks-figured if it tasted good now i’d be ok by slowing/halting. i’m just used to making and drinking pretty dry cider. this will be the first one with residual sweetness to it.
FWIW, that 32oz of tart cherry juice really gave it the tartness i was looking for without adding any acid.
Yeah, I’m not surprised. The sour cherry concentrate I use in my wife’s cherry beer is very tart. You should be good on acid, easily.
cold crashed and slammed with gelatin. 3 days now and stable 1.007. PH is 3.56- whats the desired PH for ciders?
I’ve read it should be close to 3.3, to help keep microbes in check. I don’t measure in ciders, Ken. I like a fair amount of acidity, so I adjust it to my tastes (tart with some sweetness) and it lasts a long time - my cider is more tart than most commercial ones, so I’ve always assumed pH must be lower than those, too.
yeah haven’t checked before either-got curious about the impact of the tart cherry juice addition. let the meter sit and it finally settled at 3.49, so probably wont mess around with taking it any lower.
I thought it might be lower with the tart cherry. Anyway, I’ve made a lot of cider and never, ever had one go bad (I know it happens) . Not only that, the flavor is usually best at the end of the keg.
yep-everything i’ve ever made was gone well under 6 months.
nothing but apple flavor and smell with cote des blancs-thanks for the suggestion Dave. Its basically apple champagne!
Yes indeed. Glad it turned out for you.
Awesome, man. Enjoy!
It really carbed up nicely in the keg. Just took quite a bit more time than beer and now it’s just like champagne .
Looks fantastic! Does it reallly have a pinkish hue, or is that just the lighting?
Pink from the tart cherry juice addition. It really gives a nice tart flavor.
Yeah, looks great !